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What you don’t know… (Krugman) For some time, various observers have noted that China’s electricity usage has been falling even though the official numbers for industrial production have been rising. Consequently, China’s electricity producers have stopped publishing consumption data.

Swaps and MBS and Vol. Normally, I understand roughly half of what Jansen says. But in this post, I was not able to follow even a single paragraph. If anybody out there can translate to English, maybe with a little tutorial, I would be much obliged.

Economist brains (Baruch via Salmon). Mr. Black Swan himself has started a fund to go short policymakers in general, or something.

“Chinese assets are very safe,” Geithner said in response to a question after a speech at Peking University, where he studied Chinese as a student in the 1980s.

His answer drew loud laughter from his student audience, reflecting scepticism in China about the wisdom of a developing country accumulating a vast stockpile of foreign reserves instead of spending the money to raise living standards at home.

If the Chinese ever figure out that we intend to repay our loans with printed dollars, things might get complicated. See also China Pushes Hard (Baseline Scenario).